Chapter 5: Frantic

             Rogue remained in the library well after the school day was done, she studied on trying to drown out all thoughts of her ordeals with the details of her history reports, hoping maybe those thoughts would replace the old ones – yet, they didn't.  The thoughts of her rape, and of the death of Remy's child, remained with her, always in the back of her mind, and any train of thought brought them into her mind, and left her full of questions, and the main question was why.

             Remy didn't show up at dinner time, and Rogue didn't blame him.  Even to her, it would have seemed way too early to be around the whole of the student body and instructors at a dinner table.  It would seem like too much effort to even feign a smile or say he was fine.

             It didn't ease Rogue's mind any more knowing this, though.  It left her concerned, wondering how long it would be before he felt social enough again to come to dinner, or to even come to her and talk about how he was feeling.  Rogue decided if he wasn't going to come to her, she'd come to him, and so, after dinner, and after doing the two chores she'd been assigned for the day – both which were miniscule of cleaning the kitchen and the recreation room – which were very neat luckily.

             After she'd done this, she headed upstairs and into the boys dormitory hallway, and knocked on Remy's door, hoping he'd reply, but he didn't, and feeling as if she didn't need to knock again, or announce herself, she entered, the room was quiet, and Remy was not around. 

             Rogue sighed, he hadn't even taken his cellular phone, and she knew he wasn't anywhere on the grounds, this concerned her a great deal.  He'd gone out – and hadn't told anyone.  She picked up the phone and searched through the last called numbers, Bella Donna's number was listed amongst them but something told her he hadn't gotten an answer, he would have surely said.

             She waited in his room for a while, hoping he'd come back, she went through his CD collection and listened to his music, she strummed the old out of tune acoustic guitar that had been hanging on his wall, and she picked up some more of his dirty laundry, and she went down to the laundry room and washed it. 

             Nine pm came and went, and he wasn't home.

             By Ten pm, his clothes had been washed and dried, and she remained in the laundry room, and pressed them, folded them all neatly, and went back upstairs.  She put everything away, tidied his room – which she found amusing since she rarely ever tidied her own or did her own laundry unless she absolutely needed to.  Something about Remy being so vulnerable brought out an instinct – almost a motherly instinct – to take care of him.

             She waited, every so often glancing out of his windows, hoping to see a sign of him coming down the road – but there was none.

Something caught her eye, lying on the plain beechwood desk near the window.  Rogue reached down and picked up the two playing cards, they were the jokers, he always pulled them out, he claimed once to her that they were bad luck…

Rogue suddenly realised that his black leather trenchcoat wasn't hanging on the doorhook like it usually was.  She began to suddenly panic, where ever he'd gone, he'd gone out with his trenchcoat, and a pack of playing cards, 52 mini explosives.  But had he gone with his bo-staff, she wondered.  He didn't keep it in his pocket all the time, in fact, he usually kept it on the belt of his X-Men uniform.  She rushed to the closet and threw the doors open, and located his uniform, it was still hanging there, she searched the belt.  The bo-staff was gone.  He'd gone to fight.

Frantic, she went up to her own room, throwing the door open.  Kitty was on the phone, and Rogue took the phone from her and hung it up, "Kitty, I need you to come with me," Rogue said, sternly.

             "I was speaking to my mom!" Kitty gaped at Rogue.

             "Kitty, I want you to come to Asylum with me," Rogue was gasping for breath.

             "Are you fucking crazy?!" Kitty gaped, "You went there and got raped the last time!"

             "Yes, I know, will you just come with me…" Rogue grabbed a hold of Kitty's arm.

             "Rogue, what is going on?!" Kitty demanded, she let Rogue drag her, "Hold on, my shoes aren't on!"

             Rogue picked up Kitty's sandals on the way out of the door, and tossed them in her direction, Kitty just barely caught them, and she pulled them on, running awkwardly as she did.  They headed towards the garage, and Rogue grabbed the keys to the X-Men's van, hanging up nearby on the wall, she unlocked it and climbed in.

             "Rogue, whats going on!?!" Kitty demanded again as she climbed in, pulling on her seat belt.

             Rogue pushed the button on the remote control hanging from the keys, the large garage doors lifted, and Rogue pulled the van out of the garage, speeding down the driveway at full throttle. 

             "Rogue, you don't have a license!" Kitty grabbed onto the sides of the seat.

             "Phase us!" Rogue cried at her.

             "What?!" Kitty demanded, suddenly she gasped as she saw that they were speeding towards the gates, she closed her eyes concentrating – grabbing onto the dashboard quickly, panicking as they almost collided with the gates.

             They phased through, Rogue letting out a gasp of apprehension – they'd barely made it.

             Kitty let go of the dashboard, "Jesus are you trying to kill us…now tell me what is going on?!" she asked.  "Why are we going to Asylum…"

             "I think Remy is there…" pushed her foot down on the accelerator, "I think he's gonna cause a fight…"

             "Are you serious?"

             "Yes!" Rogue sighed, "Look call it intuition…I feel something is wrong, just please…do this one thing for me, I know I owe you a LOT, but you're the only one I can turn to, just get me in, and you can go."

             "I'm not leaving you in there on your own," Kitty stated.

             Soon, Rogue was pulling the van up to the sidewalk outside Asylum, she and Kitty slipped around the corner, and Kitty grabbed a hold of Rogue's arm, pulling them both through the wall.  Rogue felt her apprehension growing, she could feel he was there, she just knew it. 

             "He's here…" Rogue drew her breath, "I just know he is…"
             Kitty looked at Rogue, "I hope he's not, then we can get out of here as soon as possible," Kitty said, they entered into the main nightclub, it was a bustle of life, loud music, and the smell of strong alcohol hit them, the smell of smoke making their eyes water.

             Remy LeBeau had been standing at the bar for some time, watching from a distance, a young man with very long brown wavy hair, died back in a ponytail, and very distinct blue eyes, was hanging around a lot of young girls, offering drinks, no one seemed interested, but he seemed insistent, even angry when they refused.

             He'd been here the night Rogue had discovered about the drugs that would suppress mutant powers temporarily, it had been Halloween, he'd seen her talking to him before.  Somehow, something just told him that this was the guy he was looking for – the guy he'd make pay for what he did to his woman.

             Remy sipped from his bottle of beer, a rolled cigarette dangling from his fingers, he looked above the rim of dark stylish sunglasses, watching the guys every move.  It was getting close to the time, just one false move, and he'd hurt him.  One false move.

             Remy put the cigarette out in the nearby ashtray, and reached into the pocket of his long black leather trenchcoat, the cold steel of his bo-staff found its way into his hand.  He felt assurance of its there.  He was glad he'd come up with this idea to hunt the guy down, he should have done it the night Rogue had told him she'd been raped, and if Bella Donna hadn't gone into labour that night, he very well might have – if Rogue hadn't been there to stop him.  And if he'd tried to leave, she would have, he knew her too well.

             Despite what the guy had done, he knew she'd spare him the suffering he'd feel at the wrath of the bo-staff, maybe a few throwing spikes, maybe more.  Remy knew full well he was more than capable of murder if he wished.  Catching the guy from behind with the bo-staff might do the trick, catch him in the neck with it, pulling on both sides, one sharp tug would probably break the guys neck with enough strength put into it.

             Yes, there was a number of ways Remy could hurt him, and he was going to make sure he used all of them.

             "I don't see him anywhere," Kitty sighed, "Rogue, lets just go, he's obviously not here," Kitty tried to avoid being bumped into by dancing patrons, she felt their long hair swat her in the face, and winced, "Lets just get out of here."
             Rogue had frozen, and Kitty wasn't sure why at first, she looked almost trance like.  She was staring off to near a wall, a guy was standing by a girl.  It was the guy himself who had Rogue's attention.  Kitty could see it in Rogue's face.

             "Rogue…seriously, lets just get out of here…please," Kitty pleaded, she went to turn, and ran right into Remy – who was seemingly on his way to the guy.  "Fuck!" Kitty gasped.

             Remy frowned, "what the fuck are you doing here?!" he demanded of them both angrily.

             "What the fuck are you doing here!?!" Kitty demanded, "are you fucking mad?!  You are seriously not going to do what we think you're going to."

             "Stay out of my way!" Remy pushed Kitty aside.

             Rogue snapped to attention right then, she jumped in front of him, "Remy, no!  Please!  You'll make it worse!" she pleaded.

             "For him, maybe," Remy pushed her aside, he had the bo-staff out, he was heading towards the guy.  Rogue heard the sound of scraping metal as the bo-staff extended itself out under Remy's command.

             He was seriously going to do this.